#but that can't quite compare to 'I have been fucking my brother-in-law and my husband doesn't know my kids aren't his'

[hollenka99]

Artur V now has his great great grandfather as a rival for the title of 'emperor with the most unhinged family dynamic'.

[evita-shelby]

Between the Shadow and the Soul

Chapter 13

Tw: slight description of gore, mentions of a hate crime

“You know gypsies don’t actually come from Egypt, Mr. Solomons, white Europeans assumed they were and suddenly everyone forgot that the Roma people, are actually from some part in India and called them gypsies instead of Romani.”

The stench was strong enough to make Eva want to retch, bit she forces the bile back down her throat. Can't project strength when vomiting in front of your enemies.

“I’m afraid you’re late to the party, Mrs. Shelby.” Alfie Solomons ate his matzah and acted as if the blood, brain matter and other garbage around him was not something out of a horror novel. Eva had seen worse, growing up under a dictatorship meant seeing the law kill its own people quite often.

In 1907, Diaz sent an army to end a riot in the biggest factory in Veracruz, it had awakened this thirst for justified violence, but what could a girl of eleven do? By the time she was eighteen and three months she drove a knife through a man’s head until it came out the other way. After that she began sleeping with a knife under her pillow.

“A shame, I’ve been to a Passover Seder once and I have been dying to see how it compares to the one I attended in Mexico City. Although, Doctor Pereira’s Seder was quite something, despite that we were all arrested for treason right after.” that was a lie, but it wasn’t like Solomons could contact Isaac and Jael Pereira to see if it was true. Both had died when some Catholic cunts burned their house.

“All your little stories end up with you being arrested, don’t they?” he jokes and Eva wants to hit him. It’s his fault everything fell apart. Sabini killed their men at the Eden and got away from the police, Arthur and chunk of the survivors here were in prison for the murder of Billy Kitchen, and Eva knows Campbell is after Michael for some fucking reason.

All because Tommy wants to string along an heiress in her pretty horse ranch god knows how many hours away. Her husband may be a genius, but hilariously stupid when it comes to love. Had Eva not married him, Grace would've no doubt been Mrs. Shelby despite everything she did in 1919.

“The hard life of living in a dictatorship, Mr. Solomons. Imagine my surprise when I talked shit about the British government and no one showed up to publicly execute me!” Eva says with mock astonishment. “But enough about my colorful past, you broke our treaty, killed our ally, and framed my brother-in-law. And that is not something I forgive easily.”

“You’ve got some balls on you, Mrs. Shelby, makes me wonder if your gypsy husband knows what he married.” He says offering her half of his flat bread and she refuses. If she eats anything it will come back up.

“I am just here just to tell you, that Smith, Riley and Arambula will no longer transport your ‘bread’ and you will not be receiving any profit from the shipments to Halifax and New York.” Eva knew Solomons needed their ships more than they needed their business.

“Gonna make me regret it then, sweetheart? You have no one here to protect you, your little husband doesn’t even know you’re here, doesn’t he?” he taunts her. True she is utterly defenseless, but that was what made her so great at making people do what she needed them to do. Alfie may be batshit insane, but he was a lot smarter than he looks.

“He’ll betray you again, you know.” Eva looks at Alfie with something akin to pity. “Greed makes people forget things like morals and years of friendship if there is something to be gained.

Oh, and Chag Pesach Samech, Mr. Solomons.”

---

“He could’ve killed you.” Tommy lectures her incensed that she’d stupidly risk her life just to intimidate their enemies. His wife rolls her eyes like some teenager. Except fourteen-year-old Finn has the decency to look sorry.

Eva doesn’t. Eva didn’t regret doing what she did, in fact she looked proud of it.

One night and everything fell apart. Now all they have left untouched was Eva’s shipping company and who’s to say they will still have that by lunch.

They’d have to appease the Black Country boys, and Eva had already tried to explain it was Sabini and Solomons who’d killed Billy Kitchen, but as usual they didn’t believe her. Either way the treaty was off and they’d have to go back to relying on Eva’s readings to make sure their boats aren’t attacked.

She climbed on his lap, wanting to make him forget he was angry that she’d done something so risky. “Would’ve made things so much easier for May, wouldn’t it? If you were suddenly made a widower.”

Eva was a jealous woman, especially now that the baby made her self-control slip. She toys with the buttons on his vest before going to the ones on his trousers. She’d wind him up and leave him like that, just because he’d thought about another woman.

Nothing had happened with May, he briefly considered it, but in the end he couldn’t. Although that didn’t stop his all-knowing wife from being furious the moment he walked into the house.

“You went with no one else but a driver, Evie, he could have killed you and I would have burned Camden Town in revenge.” Tommy would have done worse than that if someone dared to hurt Eva, Solomons looked like a tough fucker, but that has never stopped him before.

“Solomons wouldn’t have killed me, he’s batshit insane, but I knew what I was doing. What I didn’t see was that Campbell would have Moss of all people arrest Michael for what happened to the Marquis. Would’ve had Sabini’s head on a platter for you, but instead you'll have to settle with his address and the list of all the policemen in his pocket.” His wife was seemingly born into this type of life. No other woman could ever come close to Eva. She was a perfect partner in more ways than one. “That merits a reward, doesn’t it, Tommy.”

“Like what, Evie?” He had planned for this to be a surprise, but Eva had likely already figured it out. Of course, they’d have to multitask and plan their next move, but it would be worth it.

“A weekend in London, just us. You’ve had plans made weeks ago when we went to the pictures, apparently.” she looks smug, like she always does when she finds out any surprise he has for her. Tommy had hoped her lack of visions lately would keep things a secret, too bad those things come as they please.

“Did you see it in the cards, love?” he asks his hands snaking up her pretty day dress. Two could play that game.

“No, with the exception of Solomons coming back to our side, and Campbell being murdered by Polly at the Derby, I haven't had no other visions.” Evie answers his unspoken question, leaving him to figure out how she discovered it. “I found out the normal way, surprisingly.”

Normal way, what she calls everything not gained through the second sight.

“Was it Wag or the maid who called you?” he asks her.

“Wag, who told Uncle Jack about being able to get tickets for him and Aunt Penny as well.” Her voice becomes unsteady as he gets where he wants, but she moves his hand away and stands up. Tommy knew what she’d do next, Eva always does that when she hasn’t quite forgiven him about whatever she’s angry about. Tomorrow night, he’ll make sure she forgets everything including her own name.

“I need to get my black dress back from the seamstress, can’t look shabby when you introduce me to Charlie Chaplin tomorrow night.”

---

How do you know Charlie Chaplain’s bodyguard, Tommy?” Eva asked him. She knew something, something that would tell him why her aunt and uncle were here too.

“He was a bookie in Birmingham before he went to Los Angeles. He is also Romani Gypsy as is Chaplin. Born at the Black Patch as well, but he hides it.” He explained and then asked, “How’s Wag related to you?”

“Nanna Ethel’s maiden name was Macdonald, according to Uncle Jack, Wag’s my fourth cousin.” she answers in a whisper. “Apparently, he was supposed to come to Nanna’s funeral last year, but there was a scheduling mix-up with Chaplin. Never met Wag though.”

“Wag, Mr. Chaplin, let me introduce you to my wife and Wag’s lovely cousin, Eva Shelby.” Tommy introduces her and Eva really hopes this time she won’t be forced to help hide a famous actor in a basement because they spoke against the government. Although that did earn her a beautiful ruby ring from a very thankful Mimi Derba.

---

Notes:

sike! no angst on this chapter!

so yeah, romani people actually come from a place in northern india and since white europeans are so bad at geography (Colombus thought the world was pear shaped and the Americas were indian because brown people were there) they assumed those brown people were egyptian, which is where the word (and slur) gypsy comes from.

mimi derba borin in 1893, Mexico City, was a mexican actress during the revolution, apprently she was so political that she had to be hidden in a basement when the government sent soldiers to arrest her for being outspoken. she went on to found Azteca Studios, Mexicos first film studio in 1917 where she became Mexico's first female director.

the riot in veracruz that Eva witnessed as a child did in fact happen. it was the Huelga de Rio Blanco/ the Strike of RIo Blanco, where two thousand workers of a textile factory went on strike, burnt a company store to the ground and Porfirio Diaz then ordered the military to kill them. 223 male workers were killed as were 12 female workers, but appratently there were more casualities ---enough to fill several railroad platforms that involved both adults and children. Diaz went on to throw a banquet to congratulate the army for suppressing the riot. Strangely you won't find that in the english page on wikipedia, which sounds vaguely biased against the strike since one of the companies involved was american and the other french and says that the likelyhood of there being more than 70 people dead at the incident, which sounds like something the mexican government would do: cover up a body count.

Also episode 5 takes place in March but then the Derby happens in June, until Grace showed up saying she was pregnant I had assumed not much time has passed lol